Temporal masking patterns for hearing-impaired and normal listeners

Abstract

Forward masking, backward masking, and gap masking were employed to investigate temporal processing by hearing-impaired and normal listeners. Masked thresholds for a 5-reset 2500-Hz tonal signal in the presence of a narrow-band (1175–1725 Hz) noise masker were measured with a 21FC procedure. (This study represents an extension of previous work in a lower frequency region.) In the gap masking conditions, the noise was on continuously except for a brief silence, or “gap,” of 200-, 50-, or 20 msec. In general, hearing-impaired listeners had less steep backward masking functions than did the normal Ss. They also showed less decrease in masking during the gap. As the duration of the gap decreased, the difference in the gap masking patterns between normal and hearing-impaired Ss increased. The implications of these results for temporal processing by hearing-impaired listeners will be discussed.